STEVE FINNAN believes Liverpool must learn from Chelsea's mean defensive streak in order to close the worrying gap on the Premiership leaders.

Finnan says it is the champions' ability to keep mistakes at the back to a minimum which separates them from the rest.

This was clear on Sunday as errors in the Reds defence were punished, but Liverpool found Chelsea's back four hard to penetrate.

"They punished us when we made mistakes because they've got so many quality players. I suppose you have to give them some credit for that," said Finnan.

"We need to take a leaf out of their book. When we get our chances we've got to punish sides in the manner they've done to us.

"I actually thought we played quite well at times, but the first goal was always going to be important. Their second goal was probably the killer, just before half-time.

"We had to chase the game and they've done us with counter attacks, but when you look at each of their goals they were from our mistakes. We've got to cut them out. We hadn't conceded many before Sunday, so that's very disappointing.

"It's difficult to pick yourself up when you've suffered a defeat like that. A lot of people will now be saying Chelsea have won the league already and the gulf between them and the rest is too big.

"They've won eight in a row and we've got admit we're not really in a position to start talking about winning the title. Our priority has to be to reduce the gap as much as we can, and then see where we can go after that.

"It's hard, but we have to make sure we don't get too down about it all. The scoreline isn't nice, but this is our only loss in the league so far.

"The manager can see we're disappointed, but he's told us to forget the score because there wasn't a great deal between the sides."

Liverpool are languishing in the bottom half of the table, but Finnan is adamant that's a false position given the Reds' form so far.

However, he knows things must improve over the next few games.

"With our position in the league, having drawn four games out of five, it's been hard to take the defeat on Sunday," he said.

"At least we've some games to catch up on. There's another home game next.

"Losing 4-1 has left the lads feeling down and we've got to wait a few weeks for our next game because of the international break, but maybe that will help us forget it."